BabyBabyの夢
by a sorceress girl
Summary: Kinda Fuckin Abandonded, Folks.
1. Chapter 1

"Mr. Stark! If you come this way you will be able to see the laboratory of one of our scholarship students!"

Tony Stark, owner of Stark Industries and genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, strolled through the hallways of a rather high tech building with a short portly woman who's name he couldn't really remember. _Skylar_... _Something_. He was not paying attention when she was introducing herself in all honesty. The only thing that really stuck out to him about her was how close she was to him at the moment. She might as well have duct taped herself to his hip with how close her body was to him. It was... uncomfortable to say the least.

"Actually, I think you might have met her at the scholarship gala !" The woman said, her voice raising in several octaves which made Tony visibly cringe.

"Yeah?" He asked, his voice probably sounding a bit harsher than he had intended. It had felt like his brain had turned into a rock and was slamming itself into the front of his skull from the inside. He really should have listened to Pepper and gone back to his hotel room after the main events of the convention were over. He should not have gone to the casino and drank so many glasses of champagne with whatshisface. He definitely shouldn't have left the casino and go to the hotel bar to have shooters with...whats-his-name.

Tony could have sworn that he could hear the redhead right now lecturing him on the importance of moderation and that she had told him he had to go to Seattle for an appointment and _**GodDammitTonyI'veBeenTellingYouThisForWeeksAndYouPullThis?!**_ He loved her. Really. Honestly. All his heart. Crap. JARVIS might've said something about this appointment-tour-whatever as well. Shit.

"Mhm! I'm very sure you would have!" Skylar gave him a wide smile before letting out a small whooping laugh that did nothing to aide his headache. "She is a very, very gifted young woman! She's in the robotics program-though, I remember her saying something about bio-engineering..."

Tony stared down the hallway, his sunglasses barely doing anything to keep his throbbing eyes away from the harsh fluorescent lighting, while the woman rained praises on this mystery woman. "Uh huh..." Was all he could really say in response to the woman's words, he really had no idea at all what the hell she was talking about.

"Well. She's an eccentric girl, that one. It's hard to forget someone like that-"

An image flickered in Tony's over encumbered mind- _Thanks a lot, Mr. Booze_. Gloomy chick with tattoos.

"Sorry, when was this gala thing?"

"Oh! This spring-"

"Specific dates. _Please_."

"Ahh..." The woman paused in her tracks, head lilting back as she ran dates through her mind. Or at least, that's what Tony had thought she was doing. "April 15th, I believe? Around there."

What was he doing last month?

 _Right._

Travelling and visiting companies and schools that Stark Industries funded or sponsored, not that he really wanted to go to these things. He loved the attention he would get from the younger people at the schools; the way they showered him in praises that inflated his ego to the size of the sun would make his night. But there's only so much you could take and most of those events didn't have booze thanks to these munchkins being under twenty-one. He vaguely remembered some formal event in Washington; young people stroking his ego while trying to make connections with the big man himself. He also remembered some weird girl giving the shortest and most exhausted sounding speech ever.

Yeah, he preferred if he never had to do another grand tour of universities again or any other trips like these again. The only trip of his he had really looked forward to-or was looking forward to in this case-was a demonstration for Jericho in Afghanistan in a few days.

"I think I remember the kid you're talking about now, " He lied.

His tour guide's face lit up like a Christmas tree at that and finally began to scurry ahead of him instead of clinging to his side.

"I wonder if she's working on something right now actually, maybe she wouldn't mind giving us a peek!" The woman giggled, her beat up Sketchers squeaking against the grey tiled floor with every step. Her eyebrows furrowed as she stopped once again, though this time by a large window next to a navy blue door with a window-though both were obscured by what appeared to be black out blinds. She gave the door a few hard knocks and waited for someone to answer the door.

The muffled sound of metal clattering onto the floor could be heard through the door. A low startled voice could also be heard, as if the knocking had taken the owner by surprise. More chaotic noise could be heard, piquing Tony's interest despite him not really caring if he met this supposed star pupil or not. Then dead silence.

"Miss Macbeth?" Skylar called out, her pudgy hand placing itself onto the door knob. "Do you mind if I come in with a guest? We'd like to observe you for a bit, if that's alright."

Several beats passed before there was a response.

" **I am busy.** "

The voice was rather high pitched and shaky, though there was an icy edge to it on top of those three words dripping venom. Tony grinned inwardly, it was a tone that was all to familiar to him. Pepper would use it when she was angry and taken by surprise. _Miss Macbeth_ was probably just embarrassed that she was interrupted.

"Comin' in anyway, kiddo." He said, grabbing a hold of the doorknob despite Skylar still holding onto it and turning it. The door swung open and took the woman with it, nearly knocking her onto the floor.

The room was very dark, the only light coming from bright computer screens, LED lights on equipment and a desk lamp that was bent backwards. Either Macbeth was scared of light or she clearly didn't plan on being discovered doing whatever she was doing. Skylar scuttled towards a wall, presumably to turn on the fluorescent lights while Tony took a few steps towards the desk with the lamp. His left foot hit something on the floor-it felt soft yet firm even through his shoes, reminding him of when he stepped on someone passed out on the floor in college-before almost losing his footing as it slipped on something slick.

The lights were switched on and the chaotic noises from before the door were opened returned. His eyes burned and his head throbbed as he tried to get used to the light. He blinked several times as colours swam in his vision-neon clouds floating in front of him and above the object he nearly stepped on.

An arm sitting in a pool of blood.

He looked up, his mind trying to process the light and the sight in front of him and was greeted with the sight of a young woman hunched by the desk.

Young gloomy woman with teal hair and tattoos on her arms-well, an arm and a half. It was the girl that gave that speech at that gala event. And now she was missing half an arm.

He stared at her, her teal hair falling over half her face as she scrambled onto the floor to try to find something.

It felt like eons before Skylar noticed the fact that there was an disembodied arm decorated in blue and grey ink on the floor. Screams echoed throughout the hall along with the clattering of metal falling onto the floor in the chaos.

Macbeth stood up, hair still obscuring her face, with a large object in the hand she still had. A robotic arm decorated in blue paint with grey accents-though the paint must have still been rather wet judging by the hand prints on the forearm. She let out a loud sigh before slamming it hard into the stub of her missing arm; it was then that Tony realized that there was a strange ball and socket mechanism on the woman's arm.

"I..." Macbeth muttered, her robotic hand pushing the long hair out of her face as she stared at Skylar before looking at Tony. The whites of her eyes were a steel grey and the pupils glowing neon blue; she wore a wry grin on her lips as she looked at the both of them. "I told you that I was busy."

* * *

The room was dark and cool; only small slivers of natural light managing to pour onto the steel grey coloured floor through the gaps between the blackout blinds and the window frame. Other sources of light were the harsh blue-white glow of several computer monitors—some of them with half-finished text documents or stupid cat videos on the screen—and flickering desk lamps in the far corner of the room. It was quiet, save for the whirring of the computer fans, the low hum of the fluorescent bulb in the desk lamp and the low murmuring of the cat videos playing on low volume.

A young woman stepped out of a smaller room off to the corner and across from the door that lead upstairs, where it was much more warmer temperature wise and general atmosphere. The ceiling—or rather the upstairs floors—creaked with every step that someone made. It seemed that everyone else had woken up awhile ago and were well into their day, unlike the young woman who had just woken up. Or at least, just decided to get out of bed now.

Her bare cold and clammy feet slapped against the painted floor, low hissing passing through her wide mouth when she first stepped out of her room. Her tattooed legs wobbled with each step, her calf muscles tensing up when she stopped and stretched. Out of habit, both arms reached up to the ceiling, fingers on both hands waggling—the mechanical sound of her joints on the prosthetic right arm mixing with the quiet sounds of the room.

She let out a low sigh as she continued to walk towards the "main" part of the room-slash-basement, a large computer desk in the farthest corner away from her bedroom. Trash and pieces of papers with designs sketched onto both sides were littered all around the area; her feet knocked against an empty two litre bottle of Pepsi and a paper stuck itself to her clammy soles. Her robotic arm reached for the computer chair and pulled it before plopping herself into it. Another sigh escaped her when she realized that she had left her computer on and a playlist of cats doing stupid—yet adorable—things on all night.

It was almost impressive that there were so many videos of such a thing. So many that it lasted over ten hours. Amazing.

Her right arm rested itself onto the pink and white computer mouse, middle finger tapping against the scrolling wheel before she opened a new tab. The Chrome homepage showed off her most visited sites; Tumblr, 4chan, YouTube, some site for a virtual pet game and a robot fanatics forum she frequented. She clicked on the forum, wondering if there was any replies to her thread about anime robots were lame because they looked too human.

There were only two replies, one of them being an offended Japanophile defending their "waifu" (an android named Cutie Honey, who she had to admit was pretty cute. For a human lookalike.) and the other a reply from a moderator of the forum telling her that they were locking the thread due to the team thinking it was a troll thread. She now had one strike on her account.

"Fucking weeaboos," She spat before going to the forum's front page. Electronic eyes scanning the screen before locking in on the news section of the site;

 _ **ROBOT SPOTTED IN SOKOVIA? CLICK LINK FOR DETAILS AND PICS.**_

The creaking of her cheap Wal-Mart brand chair could be heard as she leaned back, wondering if the forum was over hyping things once again. It might've been something related to Tony Stark's projects— _Iron_ ... _Something_ , because the guy had to make everything about himself—once again. The site had gone into a frenzy when pictures of the robot team were first posted (read: stolen from /b/).

There was really no harm in looking at it, she could laugh about it if it was Iron...League? Legion? Yeah. That one.

Once the page had loaded, she was greeted with the sight of blurry phone pictures of what looked like Iron Legion along with something else. The thread was going crazy; people were talking about if it was something to do with the Avengers (which caused some off-topic fights with anti-Avengers posters which caused the moderation team to step in due to how hostile the posts were getting) or some weird Sokovian government thing or people saying they wanted to fuck the robots.

 **TOPIC:** " _Robot army in Sokovia? (PICS!)_ " [HOT TOPIC]

 **SapphireSea89  
** Found these pics on teh chon today, people were freaking out in the thread. Do you guys think its real? What are they?

 **UltraMagnus**  
lmao i dont give a shit about what they are other than them lookin real hot ;)))

 **RoguexThexBat  
** Aren't Those Stark's Robots?/ Iron Legion? Why Is There Another Thread About Them? PM The Mods To Do Clean Up I'm Sick Of The Same Topic Over And Over Again...,

 **SapphireSea89**  
I guess thy look like that. But why are tyhy in Sokivia? If it is real anyawy... I'll keep looking for better pics since these are kind of s***.

 **xXAikaKamiYumeXx  
** those look so cool! but theyre pbably fake since they look liek iron legion XD

 **UltraMagnus  
** sapphire is taking too long to post so ill post what i found, the stuff sh posted was from /g/ but i found s*** on /b/ and /x/ of all thins lmfao im glad that other peopl found them pretty hot

She blinked once she hit the "read more" tab on that post, which showed more blurry images of several robots flying in possible Sokovian skies. Few were a bit more clear, probably taken with a camera with a proper zoom. They indeed did look like Stark's droids, though there was one in the centre that looked quite a bit larger than the rest.

It was bulkier, which made it stand out quite a bit compared to the rather sleek model of Iron Legion, and appeared longer. The silhouette was very different.

She wished that she had magical CSI Miami picture enhancement so she could get a clearer shot of it. What did it look like? Was it just a bulky Iron Legion model? Bulkier Iron Man suit, maybe? If it wasn't, what did the over all design look like? It had a humanoid shape, like the rest of the droids it was with, but more triangular than the slim ruler build like them. Broader shoulders and slim hips, or at least that was what she could get out of it.

Colors were rather blurry due to it being so high in the sky, but even that was different than the rest of them. The Iron Legion types seemed more darker—maybe a deep blue or black—while the mystery seemed more dull. More monochrome.

She had to see more.

Quickly, she scrolled through the thread and skipped a few in the process as most of them were filled with posts that said the same things over and over again. People asking what they were, if they were Avengers related or that these were obviously fake.

On the 43rd page, she finally saw something.

 **UltraMagnus  
** hey where is cipher lmao i feel like she'd appreciate this as much as i did, since you guys never want to clang clang a robot apparently

Attached to the user's post was a still somewhat blurry image, but it was beautiful.

It was a picture of a rather large robot—with the same silhouette as the one she saw earlier—walking into a run down building. The body was strong, deep and powerful with broad shoulders, large muscles made up of what she assumed to be shifting metal plates and a slim waist. The robot could be compared to the marble statues that would be shown in museums; the ideal human form. It had a humanoid shape, and probably had other details in its body that gave it even more human traits though one couldn't tell from the blurry picture.

Cipher's breath was caught in her throat, feeling like a thick and heavy ball dropped into her stomach and spun around. It exploded inside her like the night sky on the first of July; it was like fireworks and a supernova and butterflies all at once. Heat pooled deep inside her body, starting from her very core and rising like water in a fountain. She felt it spread up to just below her skin, painting it a deep shade of red.

She didn't feel these sort of things often.

And when the girl did, she hated them. Then she would have to act on these urges after ignoring them or trying to suppress them. It made her feel unclean. Dirty. _Human_.

Not this time.

She immediately hit quote on UltraMagnus' post.

 **cipher  
** **DOES IT HAVE A NAME ARE THERE MORE PICTURES OF IT ARE THERE ANY HIGH QUALITY ONES WHO MADE IT IS THERE ANY ****ING DETAILS ON THIS PLATINUM PERFCTION**

 **UltraMagnus  
** hahaha i knew youd like it ;))) nah i havent seen anything new on it besides this vine i found. its super shaky tho i doubt u can get much from it other than...u know ;)

A Vine was embedded in the post, when Cipher moved her mouse over the video to look at the caption in the video. The text was in...Russian? She wasn't very sure, it was probably some other language from around that area though.

The video loop showed the large robot from before landing behind a metal fence along with the Iron Legion bots—though a lot had changed about them; they looked more bulky than Iron Legion and not as "armoured" as the originals. Their colour scheme had also changed from navy blue and white to a deep steel grey with a blueish tone. The group of robots marched neatly into the run down building, save for the larger one who hung back. It glanced forward, to where the camera person supposedly was.

It began to loop again after that.

Cipher's heart raced as she felt those red optics stare into hers—though it was through a screen and from a video recorded from across the globe. She felt a connection to it...or just wanted to clang clang that thing but regardless. She felt something.

 **cipher  
** IS IT'S ASS MADE OUT OF REFLECTIVE METAL? BECAUSE I CAN SEE MYSELF INSIDE IT.

 **UltraMagnus  
** HELL YEAH CIPHER FEELS ME

 **Epsilon [MODERATOR]  
** I' m going to have to ask that UltraMagnus and cipher please tone it down with the sexual posts about this new robot. There are minors on this forum, and not every adult is comfortable with these sorts of posts outside of the 18+ Board. cipher, you already have a strike on your account. But this won't count, consider this a warning for a second strike. If you two continue—UltraMagnus especially! We will have to add strikes.

Cipher clicked her tongue in annoyance while she scrolled back up to the Vine. Her glowing pupils—once a neon blue, but now were replaced with a reddish-pink light—dilated as she watched the robot land and stare into the camera over and over again. She glanced over at her right arm, noticing that the silver accents on it were the same shade as the robot she saw. Or, it appeared that way anyway.

"Jo!"

She hissed when she heard that voice call from upstairs, her teal hair whipping her in the face when she turned towards the door to upstairs. Grumbling, she pushed her chair back, got up and went to answer the door. Her robotic arm banged against the door knob before she grabbed a hold of it, wincing more at the sound than the pain she might've felt with her organic hand.

At the door stood a shorter woman, almost a foot smaller than her, with warm brown eyes and dyed brown-blonde hair. She held a large package in both her arms and looked like she was struggling with it.

"This came for you today, are you... building something new?" She asked, her voice shaking a bit due to her struggling to keep holding onto the box.

Cipher let out a small grunt as a response, her hands grabbing the box out of the woman's hands before turning to go back into the room-slash-basement.

"Jo... We're going to Fairy Ring today. Wanna come with us?"

She stared at the woman, guilt sinking into her stomach as she contemplated going with them.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, you know."

"...Mom..." She sighed, placing the package beside the door frame. "...Give me ten minutes to get ready then."

Her mother smiled before nodding and walking back up the stairs, leaving Cipher to get ready.

The ride was mercifully short, only an hour and a half long. A heavy awkwardness hung in the air the entire time, despite Cipher's mother's attempts at lightening the atmosphere by playing her music—which just made the ride even worse due to the same chord on an out-of tune acoustic guitar being strummed over and over again while an old First Nations woman yodeled on about how amazing Jesus Christ was.

The entire family was crammed into the large truck, though it certainly did not feel very big inside the cabin. Cipher's long legs were tucked in close to her body but were still knocking against the back of the driver's seat and her head had kept slamming against the top of the door frame—ah, the pain of being 6'3" since freshman year of high school. Her younger siblings were crammed beside her in the backseat, she grimaced when her youngest brother was the one to be sitting right next to her on the side where her prosthetic was. Her sister was squished beside the car door, as the young boy liked to take up as much room as he could.

She was sure that they were talking about something, but all she could recall was silence and coughing to fill the deafening lack of noise.

Cipher Macbeth was not used to being around her family. And they weren't used to her being around.

The vehicle pulled into Fairy Ring, a town on the border of Manitoba and North Dakota. It was a few hours away from Killarney and Brandon, but it served as a hub for even smaller towns and reservations near by. It would be easier for small towns to get groceries at a cheaper price—$20 for a gallon of milk was not uncommon in reservations but if you were in desperate need for such things, it was at least at the stores there. There was also fast food chains (McDonald's, A&W and a Subway in Mac's convenience store) and restaurants and specialty stores along with a modestly sized mall (which was just a Wal-Mart, a Bootlegger, Safeway and a First Nations craft store). It's "sister" city was on the other side of the border, in North Dakota, and called Amselville. It was pretty much the same, though it had a Pizza Hut and _a Hooters of all things_. Because there was patrolling due to the American-Canadian border, the family didn't go there that often unless it was for special occasions.

Once the vehicle stopped in the Wal-Mart parking lot, Cipher immediately undid her seat belt and her arm may have gotten a little too close to her brother's head in the process.

"MOM. JOCASTA HIT ME IN THE FACE WITH HER ROBOT ARRRRRRRRRM!"

Cipher screwed her eyes shut, sucking in a shaky breath as she pushed down the bubbling anger to her toes. _Fuck that name._

"Tyler please don't start this.." A tired voice belonging to a much older man sighed.

Cipher reached into her jean jacket's front pocket, robotic fingers plucking out a rather large pair of visor-like glasses. They were large enough to cover half of her face and made of a matte silver coloured plastic with horizontal slits covered with a translucent red-pink plastic. It served to hide or mask her face, rather than protect it from sunlight—which it did pretty well in all honesty. She placed them onto her face, blinking a few times as her optics adjusted themselves to the red tinted vision. The woman pushed the door open and leaped out of the vehicle before making her way to a small strip mall by the Wal-Mart.

"Jo! Where are you going?"

She turned towards her mother, motioning towards the building behind her with her head.

"Book Nook? Okay, we'll probably be in Safeway or Wal-Mart when you're done. D'ya have money on you?"

Cipher nodded, turning back towards the building and giving a small wave before walking again.

It didn't take very long to get to the parking lot of the "strip mall", though it was just a two floored office building in all honesty that called itself a mall. On the bottom floor was The Book Nook, the entrance to the bowling alley on the second floor, a hair salon and a piercing and tattoo artist. The second floor was mostly law attorney offices and a provincial politician's office.

She was fairly well known in this building, as she used to get her hair dyed and cut here and she got her sleeves here. On top of the constantly going into the Book Nook during high school.

A sigh passed her lips as she stood in front of the door to the store. It had been years since she'd been here, since before the incident even. She swung open the door, her robotic hand gripping tightly onto the door knob—her fingers leaving indents on the metal.

She was greeted with several stares from both the patrons of the small store and the two employees—one she didn't recognize and the other being the owner, an old man named Nicky. Her optics flickered from the owner to the overflowing shelves of the store. Boxes full of goods were littered all over the floor, so much that it was hard to walk around even without the table surrounded by high schoolers and NEETS playing Warhammer 40K.

Just like high school.

The only thing that was new was a small box television sitting on a table in the corner behind the counter that played CTV. An older episode of Degrassi was playing at the moment, it was so old that Drake was still acting on it.

Cipher slowly made her way to the manga section, trying her best to avoid the boxes and backpacks of the table top gamers on the floor. Another sigh escaped her once she made her way to her destination. Nicky had apparently gotten a lot of new stock in the five years she had been holed up in her house. Her organic hand ran along the spines of various titles under the Shoujo Beat label, tapping the latest volumes of titles that she was reading while trying to remember if she had that one or not.

"Hey," a familiar voice called out.

Cipher twitched, whipping her head in the direction it came from. There was Nicky, sitting behind the counter and giving her a wave. Hesitantly, she gave him a wave back.

"It's been awhile, eh? Jocasta, right?"

"...Don't call me that." She grimaced, a pang of guilt hitting her and sinking in her stomach when she noticed how harsh she might've sounded. "... **Please**. Don't. It makes me uncomfortable."

"Right, right. I forgot. What did you like to be called again?"

"...Jo. But, please call me Cipher."

He nodded.

"So, what brings you here after so long...Shit, how long has it even been?"

"2010."

"Ah right. Why'd you go?"

"...School." It was possible that Nicky hadn't found out about what had happened that year.

"Oh? What were you in school for?"

"Technology. Robots."

He laughed at that, "Yeah, you like those don't you? You got those tattoos and stuff 'cause of that right?"

Cipher squeezed her eyes shut, organic hand clenching so tight that her knuckles turned white. A pitch black feeling stabbed her insides as it sunk further into her chest and stomach. It throbbed inside her before it hatched like an egg filled with angry wasps who stung her from the inside out. Her heart pounded as her mind began to race.

"...Mhm."

The other employee jumped in, they looked about Cipher's age, "She said she was going to be a robot in high school, man."

Her heart dropped at those words. It was pounding so hard that she could hear it echoing in her ears. The wasps inside her stomach were buzzing about even more inside.

 _Who was that?! Did they know her?! How much did they know?!_

"...Mmmmmmpleasedon'ttalkaboutthat." Her voice raised several octaves and grew shaky, as did the rest of her body. Both of her limbs began to shake and so did her knees underneath her as she let herself slowly sink to the ground. Her breath began to get heavy and short; sweat dripped down her forehead and the back of her neck as her mind ran a mile a minute.

 _Hot._ Cold. _Hot._ Cold. _Hot._ Cold—

"Are you okay?!" A voice called out, probably belonging to Nicky or one of the people playing Warhammer.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIII..."

01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000

 _Pleasedon'tdepersonalizepleasedon'tdepersonalise—Ohboyherewego._

 **01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000**

"Cipher are you okay?!"

 **01010010 01010101 01001110 01001110 01001001 01001110 01000111 01011111 01000001 01010101 01010100 01001111 01010000 01001001 01001100 01001111 01010100 00101110 01000101 01011000 01000101—** _RUNNING__

"...I. Am. Fine. I have not performed my routine maintenance today and my processors seem to be overheating at the moment. Please stay calm. Rebooting may take ten to twenty minutes, recovery may take several hours, however."

 _What are you saying?! Oh, no. Oh—_

"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you breaking news."

Cipher slowly rose to her feet as the patrons of the store looked towards the TV, which showed a news anchor looking a bit startled.

"There have been reports of _metal men_ in the nation of Sokovia a few days after the Avengers have raided the country. Details about them are unknown, but speculations about their origins are in the air."

While the anchorwoman spoke, a slide show of the same blurry images Cipher saw earlier played. Even in her current state, she watched with slight interest, just in case there was anything new that she didn't see on the forum. Clips of a Sokovian news broadcast played, some of them actually showing the robots in flight head off into the mountains by a castle.

"We cut to a reporter, Lars Bosconovitch, in Sokovia. Lars, could you give us a quick summary of what happened there?"

The screen cut to a man standing by the run down building seen in the Vine; though with the higher quality camera, Cipher could see that it was a rather old building behind a metal fence. It looked like it had been there for decades, maybe even a century.

"On April 29th, the Avengers had come for reasons unknown to us, supposedly to arrest a criminal. They had just shown up, though all people have really seen were Iron Man flying to a landmark which was closed to the general public by the government. He had sent out his Iron Legion to try to protect the civilians, many of which were unhappy with."

A clip of acid being thrown at a drone by a member of a very large crowd of angry people played before the camera panned along a building wall covered in Anti-Avengers graffiti played while the reporter spoke.

"Today, people reported seeing metal men flying in the sky, some pictures and videos were posted on the internet. There were rumours that it was Avengers related—I'm just getting word now that the criminal that the Avengers have apprehended was a man named Wolfgang von Strucker, whom NATO had taken into custody... I-I'm also getting word that he has been found dead."

There was an uncomfortable atmosphere in the store. No one really knew what to say, it wasn't like they knew the man or anything. Nor would they have ever. It wasn't that a man, a criminal especially, had died that bothered them. People died everyday.

It was the tone of the reporter's voice.

Cipher's body still trembled, though it was unknown to her if it was because of her earlier attack or if it was amplified by the uncomfortable silence in the room.

The reporter tried to give information, but he obviously didn't know much. He raised his hand to his neck, mouthing something to the camera man before motioning to stop the camera only for something to appear in the background.

A small group of "metal men" landing near the rundown building. Followed by a larger more powerfully built one.

Then a bright flash of light shot at the camera and their was static. It happened so fast that Cipher didn't know if the reporter was hit by it.

The atmosphere grew more tense; if you were to take a knife to it, the blade would have snapped in half. Silence hung in the air, only amplified by the static which had cut to a "Please Stand By" from the news station; it was the kind of quiet that your mind would make up noises for to try to fill the deafening silence.

Cipher's face flushed once she felt more comfortable and calm in her own body. Her heart was pounding inside her chest, as if it was dancing and doing pirouettes, and the butterflies-slash-fireworks feeling inside her stomach returned. A smile appeared on her lips as her organic hand instinctively moved up to hide her face. That robot was back, and she saw it! She saw it! Just for a brief second but she had seen it!

"We apologize for the interruption," the news anchorwoman from earlier said, sounding more shaken than earlier before. "We've gotten the word that Lars and his crew are alright but their equipment was ruined by a blast of magnetic energy..."

She began to repeat the same information given earlier, which made everyone in the store stop paying attention. Or at least pretend that nothing had happened anyway. Eventually, the intense feeling faded away and it was somewhat like before Cipher had even entered the store.

The woman felt like she was dancing on clouds as she went back to browsing the store, picking a few volumes of manga she needed along with a few new titles before buying them. She gave a quick wave to Nicky before leaving, not even caring that it was with her robotic hand.

* * *

Three days had passed and so much had happened.

The forum was buzzing with new (stolen) material on the robot; blurry phone photos, more Vines of it and its little troop flying about, higher quality photos, clips taken from news reports all over the world or amateur footage recorded on people's phones.

Cipher's body was practically vibrating with happiness every time she saw something new; she very much enjoyed the clips taken from the South Korean news, as it featured the robot in combat with Captain America. She was fond of some clips from the Sokovian news, though they were short and very chaotic. For once, the amateur footage was better as there was more of it and they seemed to last longer, despite the sound of destruction and the clouds of dust.

The amateur footage showed the larger robot, though in a new form. It was larger and a lot more intricate in details and design. It was impressive, if slightly unappealing in Cipher's honest opinion. But, she didn't have high quality pictures of it to truly appreciate it. And she wasn't very sure if she wanted them anyway. She loved it all the same, especially as it showed the robot's voice.

" _It means nothing... When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world... will be metal._ "

Her heart swelled as she had that clip play on a loop nonstop since she had found it. His rumbling deep tones were soothing, washing over her like waves from a sea made of velvet. She sighed happily, resting her head on her robotic arm, pretending that it was his body, while it played over and over again.

She tried to ignore the fact that he was gone. Obliterated. A pile of broken pieces of scratched up metal and wires. Probably not even in a pile, he's scattered among the debris of a city that was no more.

" _It means nothing... When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world... will be metal._ "

Cipher wept.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'M SO SORRY... THERE ISN'T REALLY AN EXCUSE. UM, I HOPE THAT THIS IS OKAY? AND AT LEAST SORT OF KIND OF WORTH THE WAIT?

Potential trigger warnings for mental illness (disassociation, depersonalization and discussions about it), warning for a sexual moment (nothing happens, it cuts off before anything does but there IS a moment and its more than vaguely described).

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

"How long has it been since your last appointment, Jo-"

"Cipher. Please. _Please_..." She whimpered, the soft shaky voice not suiting her appearance in the slightest. Both her hands toyed with her heavy jean jacket, her tattoos peeking out under the fabric; her faded magenta hair hanging in front of her visor, further obscuring her eyes. "Please call me Cipher."

The woman sitting across from Cipher pursed her lips together and fought to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the request.

"How long has it been since your last appointment, _Cipher_?" Her tone was harsh and cold, reminding Cipher of when she scraped her face on the rock-stucco siding of her cousin's house in the winter. It made it feel like ice ran through her veins while flashes of white hot exploded in her mind and chest.

01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000 00100000 01101001 01110100— ** _RUNNING_AUTOPILOT. EXE_**

"... _ **Four and a half years**_."

"And your counsellor at the time was...?"

"...Nicolle Dollanganger." Cipher paused, her mind clicking and whirring as she tried to replay memories from back then. "She was an intern."

The woman nodded, scratching something into her notepad before staring at her again. "What made you stop coming?"

"..." Her mind continued to scroll through her memory banks, scrubbing through video playback. The files were old and the video quality was at 480p at the best. Then she found something; seventeen year old Jocasta Macbeth screaming and throwing a backpack around in a park before collapsing into a heap by the sidewalk. The memory looped in her mind as old feelings resurfaced. "Her internship ended and I did not want to see a new counsellor as I bonded very well with her."

The woman took a deep breath in through her nose, "I understand that you would have been upset by her leaving, but you shouldn't let that stop your recovery. Life very rarely works out the way we want it to—"

"I was well aware of that at the time but my emotions were very over whelming. I was also not on medication at the time, and when I was, it was the _wrong medication_."

She paused before furrowing her eyebrows together."Wrong medication? What were you prescribed?"

"Xanax; they kept increasing my dosage because my family doctor was paid to push it. A psychiatrist had to fight for me to get off of it. I felt very ill and couldn't function very well after I used that medication; not that it matters, since I was not in school anymore at that point. Then they had put me onto various others, including anti-depressants. The anti-depressants worked better, but she wound up not taking it after awhile."

"Who is she?"

Cipher paused.

"Me."

"You were talking as if you were someone else."

"..." Cipher pinched the joint of her robotic finger, optics staring at her hands and away from the counsellor sitting in front of her. "It was a slip of the tongue, please pay it no mind."

"I can't help you if you're not honest with me, Jocasta."

" _ **That.**_ _Is_ _ **not**_ _my name_." She snarled, robotic limb twitching as it was placed on the wooden arm rest. Her leg shook as she shot a glare at the woman whose expression was unreadable and cold. "If you're done reenacting every single psychologist scene in Hollywood movies, I'd like to leave and have a new counsellor treat me from now on."

The woman's lips twitched before frowning, "We still have forty minutes, Miss Macbeth."

"I do not care; you have managed to make my anxiety skyrocket to the point of disassociating within minutes. I was better off staying in my family's basement today."

"You disassociated?" She asked, genuinely surprised. "I suppose that explains why the sudden shift in attitude but..."

Cipher shot another glare at the woman, standing up from her seat. "I am leaving."

"You were diagnosed with depression and anxiety, right? I don't see any mention of disassociation or depersonalization-"

Her words were cut off by the sound of the door to her office slamming shut, making the framed artworks rattle and a poster on healthy communication falling off the wall. Slowly, the counsellor rose from her seat to go pick up the poster before her eyes settled on the door knob.

There were deep finger shaped indents on the steel, ones that definitely weren't there before.

She had no idea where she was—well, Cipher knew where she was but... How did she get here exactly?

Lavender optics scanned the area; rich green grass and the stench of white floral trees and marijuana hung in the air, the sounds of rushing traffic and the chiming of a heavy church bell echoed through the area. This was the park downtown, a few blocks from her counsellor's office.

"..."

She must have zoned out really hard during that appointment and came here.

And got a medium pizza from Santa Maria's apparently.

Cipher sighed, placing the pizza box beside her on the bench before pulling out her phone.

 **1:42 PM**

She must have been out of it for awhile if her appointment ended at noon. There wasn't really anything else she needed to do in Fairy Ring, so she might as well head to the bus depot to head back home. Hopefully there would be another bus soon.

10:34 PM July 14th 2015

 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** Are you fucking serious?  
 **cipher:** yeas im serious ive never seen that movie before  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** How.  
 **cipher:** idfk i watched twister and batman and robin as a kid so its not like i was avoiding bad movies back then,. i dont know how i missed a fucking masterpiece like conair  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** Well now you have to change that because it is nothing like those two pieces of shit movies. It's glorious.  
 **cipher:** ngl im tempted to never look at it cuz of you filthy homestucks  
 **cipher:** that and nicolas cage's face freaks me out  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** Well tell me you at least saw Wicker Man or Face/Off  
 **cipher:** uhhhhhhhh,,,  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME.  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** Okay I HAVE to stream this shit for you someday. Big Nicolas Cage marathon.  
 **cipher:** og god...  
 **cipher:** that sounds fun tbh i guess thatd be a cool thing to di  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** I can do it tonight if you want!  
 **cipher:** yeah ok just let me know when you start th stream  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** It'll probably be in twenty minutes, I'll send you a link once I'm set up!  
 **cipher:** ok

2:53 AM July 15th 2015

 **cipher:** holy shit that was beautifuk  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** I fucking told you.  
 **cipher:** i need my own copy of that fucking thing okay  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** HAHA.  
 **cipher:** theres torents an stuff right/?  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** I'd be surprised if there WASN'T one to be honest. I lost the torrent for Con-Air I used to have. I have the link for Face/Off and Wicker Man though.  
 **cipher:** NO I NEED CON-AIR  
 **cipher:** actuly give me face off lmao  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** ▌▌▌▌▌▌▌.▌▌▌/463673/▌  
 **cipher:** god bless amrica  
 **DRUNK ON** **DRAGON CUM:** Okay, Cipher I gotta go to bed now. I forgot I have morning classes today, shit. Have fun with your waifu, John Travolta.  
 **cipher:** ew  
 **cipher:** not even if h had a giant vibratin dishwasher safe detatchable robot dick fuck no  
 **DRUNK ON DRAGON CUM:** LMAO. Okay, see you later.  
 **cipher:** night

She was alone again.

It was late.

The young woman sighed, lilting her head back and staring at the unfinished ceiling; exposed wires and pipes and wooden beams greeted her even in the dim light. She could hear soft murmuring from upstairs; either her parents were awake and talking in the kitchen or someone left the TV in the living room on again, it was most likely the latter. It was unlikely that her father would still be awake, though her mom liked to stay up to smoke or watch Boardwalk Empire or whatever.

Cipher felt that maybe she would enjoy this time of night if she lived on her own or was at least somewhat successful with her life and not some lunatic hermit living in her parents' basement.

 _Distract yourself. Or just go to bed, you know you shouldn't stay up because you get like this._

She let out another sigh, rubbing her optic with the bottom of her organic hand. What was there to really do at this time of night? It was still fairly early—for her usual sleep schedule anyway—but still late enough for everyone else to not be posting anything. Her Tumblr dashboard and Twitter timeline would be dead, there wasn't anyone on Skype she really felt like talking to at the moment.

Sleep was most definitely the best option, maybe the most productive—wait. She had that torrent, she could at least start downloading that and maybe look for that other movie... There was also that thing that was delivered when It first showed up...

Her heart fluttered at the thought of It.

Quickly, she exited out of all her windows to glance at her desktop; there It was.

The desktop was a collage of various pictures of that robot that nearly obliterated Sokovia, well the better quality pictures and screen shots anyway. It was so beautiful; the warm feelings from when she first saw it swam through her body, pulsing through her before dropping like a heavy hot stone into her core and rippling across every fibre of her body—she could even feel it in her prosthetic.

Her breath hitched as she slumped in her chair, legs scrambling as she tried to push herself back up only to push her computer chair away from the desk. Her muscles twitched and strained while she writhed and squirmed in her chair. Magenta optics focused on the image once more, summoning the heat to coil through and over her body. Her ochre skin tingling as thoughts of those metallic fingers running along her narrow form.

Imagining it whispering her name, it's rumbling baritone vibrating at the base of her spine.

There was a familiar dampness in her lower region, making her hiss in disgust as beads of sweat just barely began to form at her forehead and back of the neck.

Dirty. Filthy. _Human._

"I can't believe this shit..." She murmured, straightening herself up before pulling her chair back to the desk. Her breathing was soft yet heavy and quick, and she just felt hot and wet and disgusting.

Yet...

Another sigh fell from her lips as she slumped in her chair again, focusing on the image of the object of her desires. Her robotic hand touching her lips before slowly moving down along her body...

 _Might as well get this over with..._

* * *

Steve Rogers stood in the empty room, arms crossed and blue eyes staring at the blank wall in front of him. His eyebrows were furrowed and lips tightly pressed together in a hard line.

"It's a pretty interesting wall, isn't it, Cap?" Natasha said, her smooth voice still managing to startle him. She stood next to him, hard eyes drifting from him then to the wall in front of them.

"Yeah, I can see why you were so fond of looking at it back then." The man let out a small laugh, feeling a bit embarrassed that he was taken off-guard by her. A small smile stayed on his lips as he glanced at her. "What's up?"

She shrugged, "Had to take a break from hearing The War Machine Story for the third time, that's all."

"Did he really tell it to you more than once?"

"Well. I might be exaggerating. Just a little."

There was a laughter shared between the two, but it was gone just as quickly as it had left. It was quiet, save for the muffled sounds of combat from another room and the foot steps of S.H.I.E.L.D agents strolling through the halls.

"I was thinking about something," Steve finally said, turning towards the woman.

"Ooh, I hope you didn't hurt yourself doing that."

He rolled his eyes, fighting to keep that smirk off his face. "Oh trust me, I was very careful about that." A sheepish laugh escaping him as blue eyes stole glances at the red head. His smile faded and eyebrows furrowed slightly before he let out a sigh. "In all seriousness, it's been months and I still have this feeling."

Natasha lifted an eyebrow, "Feeling? About what exactly?"

"This feeling that this is like some bad comic book—is Ultron really gone? Or is he going to appear just like the first time? Is there some copy of him left on a hard drive somewhere?"

"You said it yourself back then; we'll... Deal with him." She paused, her hand placing itself on his broad shoulder. "Together."

The blonde smiled softly, praying that his face hadn't painted itself a bright shade of pink from how his corny words were thrown back at him or from Natasha's touch. Nah, it was definitely the former.

It had to be.

 **End Chapter Two**

 **A/N:** holy shit i am so fucking sorry. it's hard to believe but, i actually planned on updating this story weekly/biweekly... would you believe that? haha... now look at me, lmao. i don't really have an excuse, or i don't want to use this as an excuse but, my mental health has been in the shitter for months. i'm better now but it's possible i might slip into that again, but i'm trying my best! my counsellor has been very kind and helpful to me.

ultron was a coping mechanism for me may-july but i could not focus on writing anything at all at the time, but i was constantly thinking of stupid scenarios about him, pfft. yet i had no idea where i wanted to go with this story, as my process is such a pain in the ass? i'll have scenes in my mind and know HOW i want it to end but i don't know how to get to these "scenes" or the ending... so it turns into plotless meandering and this is why i don't like writing multi-chapter fics, yet that's what i want to write(?).

then i got into jurassic world and park and that took over my life. lmao... dr. ian malcolm became that "coping" thing for me, though it was more fatherly things than the standard romantic shit that i'm used to. lmao. fuck. ANYWAY.

 **tl;dr: didn't update for several millenia cuz mental health is a bitch and jurassic park took over my life. ultron plz return my phonecalls, i didn't mean to hurt u bby ilusm. owen grady and dr. ian malcolm dont mean anything to me-they do but WHATEVER I STILL LOVE YOU XOXOXOXOXOXO**

HUGE THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE THAT LEFT ME REVIEWS! you guys really motivated me and made me want to write every time i received your super kind words, even if it doesn't seem that way. i know i already thanked several of you but i still want to thank you here again!

 **Lyle:** thank you very much! i'm sorry i couldn't tell you this sooner and i hope that you're still interested in this story!

 **Sorana3:** when i got this review, i gasped so loud! i'm not really used to reviews? especially ones as detailed as yours? haha. i really hope your stories go well and i'm so excited for your avengers one!

 **daisiesinthepages:** oh wow! i know i said this earlier to sorana, but i REALLY am not used to reviews let alone long ones! yours was more emotional and stuff and it means a lot! your praise was like "oh holy shit lmao holy fuck" when i saw it in my inbox, if that makes sense? your story is also really great and i'm so excited to see more of it!

 **weaponsofmasscreation:** thank you so much! ha, it really means a lot to hear that kinda thing from someone that created such an awesome oc? i can only hope that cipher is half as interesting as holly is!

i totally recommend that you guys read "picking up the pieces" by daisiesinthepages and "wonderwall" by weaponsofmasscreation!

i just really want to thank you all for being so patient and kind to me. thank you all for the favorites, follows and reviews! it really means so much and i hope that i won't let you down. i can't promise regular updates, but i'm gonna try to update as often as possible. i'm also probably going to try to write a bunch of chapters and stagger them periodically so you're not left with a huge dry spell again? again. key word is **try**... lmao...

stay in school. say no to drugs. stay away from jeff goldblum as he will destroy your life, please take it from me. please.


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